Contents

Background

Formerly a sorcerer of Dalaran, Kel'Thuzad was one of the principal agents of the Lich King, responsible for the spreading of the Plague of undeath across Lordaeron. After being slain by Arthas during the events of the Third War, he was reborn as a lich. He then aided Arthas in summoning Archimonde, a powerful lord of the Burning Legion. However, Kel'Thuzad's true loyalty was to the Lich King, and not the Burning Legion. After the Legion's defeat, Kel'Thuzad supported Arthas in wresting power from the Dreadlords. When Arthas left for Northrend during the events of The Frozen Throne, he left Kel'Thuzad as his agent to command the Scourge in Lordaeron.

Abilities and Strategy

Phase One

Kel'Thuzad begins the encounter invulnerable, and you need to kill adds which come from the seven corners of the room. This includes the entrance.

Soldier of the Frozen Wastes - Casts Dark Blast when it touches an enemy unit causing 2,503 to 3097 shadow damage to the raid and will kill the Soldier itself. Dark Blast is not partially resistible. Surprisingly, these are shackleable. Slow move speed. 2,000 hit points. 120 will attack through phase one though more may be pulled accidentally. More than one of these reaching the raid at the same time is generally a wipe.

Unstoppable Abomination - Periodically applies Mortal Wound on whatever it is attacking. which also applies a stacking -10% healing received debuff. It will randomly choose one melee range target, so multiple tanks work best for this mob. They spawn progressively faster as phase 2 approaches, they must be killed as fast as possible to avoid having multiple abominations up when Kel'Thuzad becomes active. Normal run speed. 100,000 hit points. Fourteen will attack through phase one though more may be pulled accidentally. Hits for ~4,000 on plate, ~5,000 mortal wound.

Soul Weaver - Wail of Souls Inflicts shadow damage and knock back. 6375-8625 shadow damage, knocks back 30 yards, hit 3 players. It will only do this attack when it is near its primary aggro target. Slow move speed. 140,000 hit points. Fourteen will attack through phase one though more may be pulled accidentally.

Phase Two

Kel'Thuzad becomes active, stage 2 begins 5 minutes and 10 seconds after you engage him.
Kel'Thuzad has approximately 3,150,000 hit points. He is immune to taunt.

2 second cast. Inflicts 9,000 to 11,000 Frost damage to primary aggro target and reduces its movement speed for 4 sec, must be interrupted as it will one shot or nearly one shot the main tank. Frost bolt is cast at random intervals and is often chain casted, having multiple rogues and warriors meleeing Kel'Thuzad at all times is ideal. This spell is not resistable.

Kel'Thuzad can mind control 5 people at once. Size increased by 200%. Charmed. Damage increased by 200%. Healing increased by 500%. They will buff and heal Kel'Thuzad. Can be CC'd by any ability that would normally work on humanoids. This ability will wipe all threat. This ability will always target the player with the highest aggro (I.E. the main tank) requiring a tank switch. This spell has a cooldown of 60 seconds.

A debuff randomly applied to a mana using player. The player will explode after 4 seconds, dealing Arcane damage based on maximum mana to all players within 10 yards (not to himself). This will burn half of their current mana pool. This spell has a 20 second cooldown.

Summons a very noticeable red fissure around the targeted player which does 62500-137500 shadow damage after 3 seconds as Void Blast. Easily avoidable by running out of the fissure. This spell has a 10 second cooldown.

Places an Ice Block effect on the targeted player, and all players within 10 yards, rendering them unable to perform any action. This effect will continue to chain to anyone within 10 yards of anyone affected as with C'thun's Eye Beam. It will deal 130% of their maximum HP in damage over 5 seconds. If those affected are not healed within 4 seconds they will die. This spell has a 30 second cooldown.

Phase Three

At 40% health, Phase Three will begin as Kel'Thuzad calls for aid and the Lich King sends five Nerubian Crypt Lords known as the Guardians of Icecrown to attack the raid.

Guardian of Icecrown - These have as much HP as Kel'Thuzad (each) with the ability: Blood Tap. Which is a self buff that does +15% all damage, + 10% size and can stack up to 99 times. The Guardians will flee when Kel'Thuzad dies. They CAN be shackled by priests but if more than 3 shackles are cast Kel'Thuzad will dispel all the shackles at once. The Guardians stack Blood Tap every time they switch targets or a player dies. Blood Tap will hit their aggro target for ~1,500 to start while they will melee plate for ~1,000 to start.

40-man Level 60 Strategy

You will need 6-7 tanks and 10-13 healers for this encounter. Frost resist gear is not generally advisable since you'll need all the DPS and mana regen you can get. The main tank also cannot resist Kel'Thuzad's frostbolt anyway.

Phase One

Gather in the middle of the room, make sure all pets are on passive.

Ranged need to all be on the Soldiers and Soul Weavers. Healers can help DPS Soldiers. Melee are on the Abominations.

It's incredibly important that all raid members are aware of the Soldiers coming at the raid. Although they only have 5,000 HP one touching the raid will take everyone down to 40% HP or so. Two hitting the raid will be a wipe.

Have someone call out the Soul Weavers as soon as they acquire a target. They have a lot of HP and if they reach the raid there will be deaths.

Abominations need to be killed as fast as possible without pulling aggro. They hit for about 4,000 on a tank and stack mortal wound. More importantly they spawn progressively faster as the phase goes on and you don't want any up when Kel'Thuzad attacks. You will definitely still have some Soul Weavers up as Kel'Thuzad spawns so ranged need to finish them off.

Phase Two

This phase needs to end as fast as possible so your healers have mana for phase three. A tank should pick up Kel'Thuzad as he spawns and drag him to the middle of the room. Make absolutely sure your interrupters are on the ball here. Kel'Thuzad is capable of bursting for 14,000 unresistable damage on a tank with a frostbolt into volley if you do not interrupt him which will kill any tank without shield wall up. Like most bosses Kel'Thuzad is immune to taunt. He has 3,150,000 hit points.

Positioning will be the critical part of this phase. The melee need to establish a diamond around Kel'Thuzad's hit box with 8 yards between them to make sure less than 6 melee are hit at a time by Frost Blast. When Shadow Fissure hits a melee clump you'll need to move away from Kel'Thuzad then back in. If the melee are in groups of five Prayer of Healing can save them, as well as Chain Heal if you are a Horde raid. You'll need mulitple healers hitting all the melee however as Frost Blast hits for 130% of their HP.

The rest of the raid will need to be in a circle around Kel'Thuzad with 8 yards between them. Mana detonation will cause a lot of deaths unless you stay spread out, and remember that Frost Blast can chain through the entire raid if you do not keep spaced. Although it is tempting to drop melee for this encounter too many ranged will result in running out of room to fit 40 spread out people in.

Healers will need to be ready for both burst healing on Frost Blast every ~30 seconds and Frostbolt Volley which hits for about 60% of a raid member's HP every 15 seconds. Kel'Thuzad melees for about 3,000 on a tank.

Kel'Thuzad's most dangerous ability is Chains of Kel'Thuzad. This will mind control your main tank and four others (possibly other tanks), wiping threat. Melee need to be especially careful to stop DPS when this comes as Kel'Thuzad is not tauntable. Whichever tanks are not mind controlled need to to immediately fight for threat on Kel'Thuzad while interrupts need to continue to avoid tank deaths. Anyone with a humanoid CC ability will need to use it, especially Mages, to control the mind controlled players who hit VERY hard and heal Kel'Thuzad for 500% healing. Mages should keep detect magic on Kel'Thuzad so the raid is aware of any buffs he may gain. Kel'Thuzad uses this ability randomly, as often as every minute or sometimes every two minutes. ALL of his other abilities carry on while this is in play so don't lose focus.

Phase Threee

At 40% HP Kel'Thuzad will call for aid and the Lich King will send five Guardians of Icecrown at the raid. Three priests should be assigned to shackling these (no more or Kel'Thuzad will dispel your shackles). They obviously will need to run through other raid members so make sure people stay aware and move away to stay spread out. Two tanks need to be tanking Guardians that are free and they will be taking a lot of damage. Guardians gain 15% damage every time they switch targets or a player dies so try very hard to keep them under control or your tanks will explode. Guardians are tauntable.

This means you will have less tanks on Kel'Thuzad during a chains and sometimes Guardian tanks will have to try to pick up Kel'Thuzad, which is a good time for Shield Wall.

Kel'Thuzad's other abilities continue at the same rate so this phase can quickly become very frantic, especially if your Priests die. Try not to let DPS get overly excited and pull aggro during or after Chains of Kel'Thuzad as deaths will quickly escalate the encounter out of control.

Raid buffs such as an Onyxia head turnin and full flasks are VERY helpful for the last 40%. This is the most difficult encounter in WoW 1.0. Good luck!